Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Multiple Sclerosis! I know, it sounds disturbing and like some type of foreign disease. I know exactly what your thinking, its not as complicated as you think it is. But the key to understanding the disease is to understand what human body system is being effected the most. Before we get into that you must know that Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a auto-immune disease. Well, what is a auto-immune disease? Now you should know why health class is so important... Just joking. A auto-immune disease is when your body decides to attack itself for no apparent reason. Think of it as friendly fire. Why would your body do such a odd thing? There are many possible clues that point out certain explanations but scientist today are still unsure. Here we go! The central nervous system (CNS) is very important to understanding MS. It consists of the brain and the spinal chord which are the largest part of the nervous system. These areas receive the information brought to them, process it, then direct the activities of all the other parts of the body. Both spinal chord and the skull are protected with a bony structure, lots of neural tissues, layers of membrane, and special fluids (called cerebral spinal fluid). If you are lost at this point, science is not your subject. Neurons are the basic unit of the central nervous system (CNS). There are three kinds: sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons. These neurons are covered in a layer called myelin sheath, which helps the speed of transmission. All performing different functions, and vary in size and shape. All the neurons consists of the same three parts cell body, dendrites, and axons. Now don't get confused by neurons and neuroglial cells. Neuroglial cells are just there for support, they act as glue to keep the neurons in place and giving them nutrients. Think of the neuroglial as the caregiver, the one who nurture the kids. The nervous system job is to collect information, make sense of it, and integrate along with the peripheral nervous system. Good job if you understood everything thus far, but don't get to happy because there's more. To sum it all up, think of the nervous system as a company with the brain being the executive director and the spinal chord as the assistant director. With everything else apart of the nervous system being the employee's. So the neurons, neuroglial cells, the bundles of nerves called plexuses or ganglia are the workers. One last thing I have to mention before I get into what multiple sclerosis (MS) is. I can't forget about the four lobes and cerebellum that help function the brain. Each lobe are assign to carry out certain functions of the body. The lobes are called the temporal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and frontal lobe. Now you got the anatomy and physiology part down so we can move into Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Sclerosis meaning scarring, MS is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS). It damages the myelin sheath, a surrounding material that protects your nerve cells. How does this disease affects your body? Damage like this slows down or blocks messages between your brain and your body. This leads to neurological attacks. Remember when I mention auto-immune disease and friendly fire? Well, what happens is your body immune system attacks your neurons mistakenly. See, your immune system is responsible for attacking unwanted things like bacteria. In this case people with MS their immune system mistake there neurons for an invader. Causing many symptoms and events to take place within your body. Some in which I will get into later. People with MS develops multiple areas of scar tissue on the brain due to the nerve damage. If you're still trying to determine why health care professionals call the disease multiple sclerosis then stop reading. Multiple sclerosis can go from disabling to devastating. Most people, not all experience first symptoms of MS between the ages of 19 and 41. So what are the symptoms? People start experiencing: vision problems, speech problems, memory loss/trouble concentrating, bladder problems, fatigue, muscle weakness, trouble coordinating balance, sensations such as numbness, prickling, and sharp body pains. Symptom may appear like a stroke so don't get confused because they're different. MS is not contagious in any way. Diagnosing this disease is extremely hard. If suspected of having MS, physicians have to run millions of test on you. OK, maybe not a million but it looks like it. Usually physicians will run MRI and CAT scan test on you. There isn't just one single test to determine if you have it or not. Sadly there's no cure for MS yet, however there is treatment opinions to keep patients stable and living comfortably. Medications to treat Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are corticosteroids, muscle relaxants, and other forms of drugs use to treat relapsing forms of MS. These treatments will reduce the attacks that happen to your brain. MS is much more common in females than males and 2 to 3 times more common in relapsing-remitting MS. Lastly, worldwide there is an estimate of 2.3 million people with MS because the Center for Disease Control and Prevention does not require U.S. physicians to record the cases of people with MS.

Lung Cancer

Lung cancer. What the hell is it? I'll explain what lung cancer is soon after I explain the respiratory system. Don't panic, I promise you'll get an better understanding as long as you're breathing. Now, the respiratory system has a few jobs. The respiratory system controls ventilation, regulate blood (ph), and produces speech. These jobs are vital to maintain the body and keep it functioning correctly. See? You knew your lungs had more purpose than just pumping air! The nose and the mouth are entry ways where dirty air (which turns into clean air) goes in then comes out (the air that once was clean is now carbon monoxide which is now exhaled from the body). Now, someone may ask, "Why humans breath out carbon dioxide ?" It's in the air, and its apart of photosythesis. But that's another rant for another day. The nose is seperated into parts called the nostrils. The respiratory system controls what comes into your body through these two seperate entry ways by having nasal hairs. Both nostril entry ways contain thousands of nasal hairs; these hair collects bacteria, dust, and all the other gross stuff that flys into the air on a daily basis. Disgusting, I know. No more bogger dinners for me. Just kidding. Anyway, these external holes lead into internal holes thats connect to the pharynx. The pharynx is also apart of the digestive system, but it plays a vital role in the respiratory system. The pharynx is divided into three parts: nasopharynx, oropharynx, and the laryngopharynx. These words are a mouth full of course, but they serve greater functions. Connect to the trachea is a big pipe that leads to your lungs. Wooooh! Finally we're at the lungs. These two sets of organs are more complex than figuring out women. Ha, imagine that. Each lung sits on both sides of the heart. What's more interesting is that the right lung is a few sizes bigger than the left lung. The right lung has three lobes and the left has two. These two pair of lungs are covered in membranes, a pleural sac with bronchial trees that decends into the lungs. The bronchial tree divides into smaller branches called bronchloles. At the end of the bronchloles, theres a structure that resembles little blue berries--and no you can't eat them. These little berry like structures are called alveolar sacs, which are elastic tissue that stretches and constricts as you breath in and out. There are approximately three-hundred million alveoli that are wrapped in small blood vessels called capillaries. Along with the capillaries, there's connective tissue called the respiratory membrane. This is where gases exchange and a process called pulmonary circulation is done to reoxygenate the blood. And that ladies and gentleman conclude the respiratory system. Now we can move onto stage two, lung cancer. Get it? Stage two? Okay, maybe that was a bad joke... *Insert apology emoji here* Lung cancer is the growth of abnormal cells in either one or both lungs. These cells grow into tumors that can prevent the lungs from performing it's normal functions. The cancer begins with mutation of a cell’s DNA in the lungs cells; this can be cause by normal aging, environmental reasons, smoking, and exposure to gases that are harmful to humans. This kinda throws out the idea of "smoking can only give you lung cancer", no my friend. There are various ways that a human can get lung cancer. And there are two cateorgies of lung cancer: primary lung cancer, which is when the tumor develops in the lung and this is where the cancer starts; then there’s secondary lung cancers, or "metastases". Metastases is when cancer spread from other parts of the body gets to the lung and cause complications there. Now specifically primary lung cancer is called non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in which there are four stages to this type of lung cancer. Stage one is when the cancer is located only in the lung and has not spread to any lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are small bean-looking glands that apart of the lymph system. Again, a rant for another day, I promise I'll explain. Stage two the cancer is nearby the lymph nodes. Stage three is cancer is in the lymph nodes and in the middle of the chest. Stage three also has two subtypes if cancer has spread to the lymph nodes on the same side of the cancer side it’s called stage three A and if it spread to the opposite side of where the cancer started its called stage three B. Stage four is the most advanced stage of lung cancer spreading to both lungs, the fluid in the area around the lungs, or to another part of the body. This is the deadly side of cancer. The other type of lung cancer is called small cell lung cancer (SCLC), this type of lung cancer has stages involving just one part of the lung and nearby lymph nodes. Stage two which is called extensive stage, where the lung cancer has spread to other organs in the body. And guess what? Only about 85 percent of people of lung cancer are diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer and 15 percent are diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. Treatment for non-small cell lung cancer is surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and targeted treatment along with medications. Treatment for small cell lung cancer are chemotherapy and radiation therapy. And that's all folks! Sound off in the comments below.